FamilyTreeNow Opt Out: How to Remove Your Listing

In short: Go to familytreenow.com/optout, search for your listing using your name, city, state and birth year, click the record to confirm it's you, then press the red "Opt Out" button. FamilyTreeNow's own opt-out page says to "allow up to 48 hours for your request to be processed," and you'll need to click a confirmation link sent to your email before the removal goes through.

FamilyTreeNow pulls together public records and genealogy data into free profiles that show names, ages, addresses and relatives. Because it's free and built from public sources, anyone can search it, and your listing can come back even after you remove it. Here's exactly what the opt-out form asks for, in the order it asks for it.

Where is FamilyTreeNow's opt-out form, and what's the first step?

The opt-out form lives at a specific address on FamilyTreeNow's own site: familytreenow.com/optout. Before you can search, the page asks for an email address and a security CAPTCHA, then a button to start the process, according to Optery's step-by-step instructions. That means the CAPTCHA comes first, not after you've found your listing.

Once you click through, FamilyTreeNow's own instructions say: "After you click the 'begin' button below, you will be taken to the search page. Run a search for yourself," according to FamilyTreeNow's opt-out page.

What do you type into FamilyTreeNow's search page to find your record?

You'll need your first, middle and last name, the city and state where you live, and your birth year, with an option to add more details such as an address or phone number if needed, per Optery's guide. Once you submit that information, FamilyTreeNow returns a list of possible matches.

Because FamilyTreeNow aggregates public records, searches often return several people with the same or similar names. FamilyTreeNow's own page tells users to check carefully before acting: "After you have found yourself in the results, click on the record detail. Verify that this is yourself and not just someone else with your same name," per familytreenow.com/optout. If you opt out the wrong record, you won't have removed your own listing, and you may have submitted someone else's information for removal instead.

Clicking "Opt Out" and finishing with email verification

Once you're sure you've found your own record, FamilyTreeNow's instructions say to click the opt-out control on that page: "After you are 100% sure this is your record, click the big red 'Opt Out' button that is on the page," according to FamilyTreeNow's own opt-out page. Optery describes that button in more detail as sitting "above your full name, birthdate and age" on the detailed record view, per Optery's guide.

That click doesn't finish the job. Komando's guide to the process notes that "you'll get an email containing a link to complete your opt-out request," and that clicking that link takes you "to a confirmation page," according to Komando.com's Opt-Out Tuesday guide. Optery's walkthrough similarly describes a status message appearing after the button click, followed by an emailed verification link that has to be opened to finish the request, per Optery's guide. If the email doesn't arrive right away, check your spam folder — it's an automated message from a data broker, not a sender you've corresponded with before.

Optery also recommends using a disposable email address rather than your main inbox when contacting FamilyTreeNow or similar sites, warning that "data brokers are known to add you to their marketing lists and databases whenever you contact them, even if the purpose is to opt out," as explained in Optery's guide.

What timeline does FamilyTreeNow itself promise for removal?

FamilyTreeNow's own opt-out page states a specific window: "Please allow up to 48 hours for your request to be processed. Once it's processed that record will be removed from all places on the site," according to familytreenow.com/optout. That 48-hour figure is the company's own statement rather than an independently verified turnaround, so treat it as the window to plan around, not a guarantee — and search for yourself again afterwards to confirm the record is actually gone. Komando's guide gives a softer, less specific timeframe, telling readers to "give it a few days for your information to be removed," per Komando.com.

FamilyTreeNow's own page also flags a wrinkle for people with duplicate listings, instructing them that if they have multiple records to remove, they should repeat the search-and-opt-out steps for each one, per familytreenow.com/optout. One opt-out request only clears one record, so if a search turns up several entries for you, each has to be found, verified and opted out separately.

There's a separate path if you found your profile through a search engine rather than FamilyTreeNow's own search tool. The company's instructions say: "If you found your record via a search engine, go back to the exact record, then copy the URL from your browser address bar and submit it on our contact us page here," per FamilyTreeNow's opt-out page.

Does opting out cost anything or require signing up?

No. The entire process described above runs through the public opt-out form at familytreenow.com/optout using only your email address, name, location and birth year. You don't create a login, and you don't pay anything to submit the request.

Step-by-step checklist for removing your FamilyTreeNow listing

1. Go to familytreenow.com/optout.
2. Enter your email address and complete the CAPTCHA, then click the button to begin the opt-out procedure.
3. On the search page, enter your first, middle and last name, your city and state, and your birth year, then search.
4. Look through the results and click into the record that matches you, checking the details carefully since multiple people can share a name.
5. Confirm it's genuinely your record before proceeding — don't opt out a listing that belongs to someone else.
6. Click the red opt-out button on the verified record page.
7. Check your email inbox, and spam folder if needed, for the confirmation message, and click the verification link to complete the request.
8. Allow up to 48 hours, per FamilyTreeNow's own opt-out page, then search the site for yourself again to confirm the record is gone, and repeat steps 3-7 for any additional duplicate records you find.

What to do next: FamilyTreeNow is only one of many people-search sites that may be showing your information. Check our opt-out tracker to monitor all major sites so you know when to re-run this process, and compare opt-out requirements across 10 people-search sites to see which other listings are worth checking for your name.